The ice cream soda was invented by Robert McCay Green in Philadelphia, PA, in October 1874 during the sesquicentennial celebration of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.
He wanted to create a something to attract customers away from another larger, fancier soda fountain down the street.
The story goes; on a particularly hot day, Mr. Green ran out of cold ice for the flavored drinks he was selling and used vanilla ice cream from a neighboring vendor.
He stumbled upon his ice cream soda idea while observing people enjoying ice cream with a glass of plain water at a local confectionery. After some experimenting, he decided to combine ice cream and soda water.
The customers gave their hearty approval to the new drink as evidenced by the fact that Green, who had been averaging $6 a day with the first drink, was taking in over $600 a day for ice cream sodas by the end of the exhibition.
Invention of ice cream soda
